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Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Man Booker Prize

The Man Booker Prize was awarded to New Zealander Eleanor Catton for The Luminaries. Eleanor Catton is the youngest Man Booker winner in the prize's history (she is 28 but completed The Luminaries aged 27). It is also the longest ever Man Booker winning novel (832 pages).

The Luminaries, set in 1866 during the New Zealand gold rush, involves a group of 12 men gathered for a meeting in a hotel and a traveler who stumbles into their midst; the story involves a missing rich man, a dead hermit, a huge sum in gold, and a beaten-up whore. There are sex and seances, opium and lawsuits in the mystery too. The multiple voices take turns to tell their own stories and gradually what happened in the small town of Hokitika on New Zealand's South Island is revealed.